Genial heritage in hands of a man of passion

City mover and shaker: Pearce picks up hard reins ready for the challenge despite the restraints

The juxtaposition of events could not have been more apposite: that on the very afternoon when Manchester City honour the career of one of their finest they should confirm the genesis of another in whose potential they have invested so much faith. When Norah, the widow of the former City manager Joe Mercer, unveiled a memorial to her husband at the City of Manchester Stadium on Thursday afternoon, Stuart Pearce, the latest incumbent of that Sweeney Todd-like piece of managerial apparatus, cannot have failed to take note of the citation. It reads: "Together with coach Malcolm Allison, he [Mercer] transformed the underachieving Blues into a team of outstanding talent and breathtaking flair."

The juxtaposition of events could not have been more apposite: that on the very afternoon when Manchester City honour the career of one of their finest they should confirm the genesis of another in whose potential they have invested so much faith. When Norah, the widow of the former City manager Joe Mercer, unveiled a memorial to her husband at the City of Manchester Stadium on Thursday afternoon, Stuart Pearce, the latest incumbent of that Sweeney Todd-like piece of managerial apparatus, cannot have failed to take note of the citation. It reads: "Together with coach Malcolm Allison, he [Mercer] transformed the underachieving Blues into a team of outstanding talent and breathtaking flair."

Pearce was only a young boy growing up in London's Hammersmith during that era when the seemingly perpetually smiling Mercer, or "Genial Joe" as the bandy-legged Arsenal and Everton wing-half was known, was in his pomp. He fashioned a side containing Franny Lee and Co to become the 1968 First Division champions and FA Cup winners in 1969. That was followed by the the European Cup-Winners' Cup the next season, when they also claimed the League Cup.

But City's latest manager, their ninth in 15 years, appointed on a two-year contract, with a further year on a rolling 12-month basis, is well aware of that fabulous period and the magic of the giant of a character who conjured it, against whom he must measure himself.

Pearce's immediate ambition in his caretaker role has, of necessity, been rather more modest: securing the club's Premiership status. In fact, in eight games, he has achieved significantly more than that, transforming City from a club who had threatened to become beset by domestic squalor at the wrong end of the Premiership to one luxuriating in European chic, should they defeat Middlesbrough here today (always assuming Tottenham do not also win their final match by two more goals than City).

Yet, that hasn't deluded the former England full-back about the magnitude of his task if he is even to approach the achievements of Mercer. "That gentleman there [he gazes towards Mercer's memorial] probably did a better job than I ever can, but it's definitely something for a young manager like me to aspire to," says Pearce, whose appointment by the club's chairman, John Wardle, comes with the addendum that with the club still £40m in debt he has only limited room for manoeuvre in transfer dealings.

In a sense, this is where real management begins. How will he recommend the board to respond if, as expected, the likes of Shaun Wright-Phillips, the captain, Sylvain Distin, and Richard Dunne remain vulnerable to predators, regardless of City's possible presence in Europe? Until now, Pearce's priority has been to extract the optimum performances from personnel bequeathed to him by Kevin Keegan. Now some critical long-term judgements have to be made.

"The manager is fully aware of what he's got - or, more like, what he hasn't got," says Wardle drily, at just about the same time as, intriguingly, across the city events were unfolding which would make City's problems resemble those of a corner shop contrasted with a superstore.

Pearce has long been mindful of those restraints imposed by Wardle, who is determined to turn the club round in two or three seasons. "From day one, when the chairman asked me to start the job interview, as it were, I knew exactly the financial situation," he says. "From that moment, I've never planned on a short-term basis. I've worked as the permanent manager in my own mind, and I wouldn't have done the job any differently if he'd given me a 10-year contract. I took it for granted my results would be good enough to keep me in the job. There was no point in doing half a job and trying to pick the reins up today. I would have failed from the outset. That's not me."

The assimilation of his new role has not been a comfortable process. Alternative potential managers, including Martin O'Neill, Iain Dowie, Gordon Strachan and Sam Allardyce, had been broached almost daily within the media. Typical of a man who perceives such headlines not so much as a threat but as a personal challenge for him to overcome, he maintains: "If this club, with its size and support and status, didn't have these people applying for the job as manager, I'd have thought, 'Christ Almighty! What is going on in the world?' But the chairman said, 'There's the job. Let's see how you get on. I'm not looking to bring another manager in. You show me what you can do'. I have, and he's been true to his word."

Pearce, capped 78 times for England as a defender so committed in the tackle that his epithet "Psycho" will no doubt remain with him to his grave, had initially commended himself to Wardle with his low-key, yet crucial, coaching of City's rearguard - an area which Keegan tended, historically, to find problematic. It is highly significant that the club's "goals conceded" record this season has been more parsimonious than that of all but the Premiership's top trio.

One of Brian Clough's principal disciples as a player at Nottingham Forest, Pearce was offered his first management opportunity eight years ago at the City Ground. As caretaker there, following Frank Clark's departure, he won a Premiership Manager of the Month award but could not prevent Forest being relegated. Pearce departed. "That job fell in my lap," he recalls. "It was the chairman saying to me, 'Would you help the club out? We're in trouble here; we're being taken over. We don't want to appoint a new manager until we get taken over in a couple of months. Would you do it?' I was captain and it seemed the natural thing to do. I'm not the kind of person to shy away from a challenge. It was a great experience, a great learning curve."

Pearce adds: "It was never in my mind to be a full-time manager at that time because I felt as though I could still play. I did - for five years, for England and Newcastle, West Ham and Manchester City. That experience was priceless really." His lesson was? "You've got to learn quickly in this game, otherwise you'll be in trouble. You'll be out on the dole."

Attaining that final Uefa Cup place today, with all its advantages - not least maintaining the loyalty of certain personnel, particularly Wright-Phillips, and attracting new blood - would be an unforeseen bonus for all at City. "The day I took the job, I dreamt of staying up," admits Pearce. "We were on 36 points. I wanted to make sure we got to 40 points and we stayed in this league.

"The players showed me a bond and a togetherness that surprised me in a way. I'm not going to throw cold water on the fire now. I will say to them, 'You've achieved this; now go a step further'."

He adds: "Shaun Wright-Phillips is on a long contract, as are some of our other big names as well. There will be interest in our players. The day there isn't, we've got a big problem at this club. If there's speculation about our players it means the team are playing well, just as I look at Chelsea [that poker face of his conceals the humour behind the remark] and think there's one or two players there who could benefit my team."

There is an infectious enthusiasm about him, one which he fails to suppress on the touchline, with his variety of postures which invariably attract the camera lens. From angst to appreciation, the gestures are all there.

"I can be on the touchline looking as though I'm a lunatic, and then, five minutes after the game, I'm nice and relaxed. It's a passionate game. If you can be near your players and cajole them a little bit, that's what it's all about in my eyes. But as time goes by, I may mature a touch." He winks. "But let's hope not, eh?"